And the band played on

THE ROYAL Philharmonic was Beecham's orchestra and, 35 years after his passing, its charismatic creator still holds the key to the RPO's future. Tomorrow a gala concert at the Albert Hall celebrates the half-century of an ensemble that has been threatened with extinction since 1961. As the last symphony orchestra to arrive on the crowded London scene, it has repeatedly been targeted as the first to go.

12:00AM BST 14 Sep 1996

THE ROYAL Philharmonic was Beecham's orchestra and, 35 years after his passing, its charismatic creator still holds the key to the RPO's future. Tomorrow a gala concert at the Albert Hall celebrates the half-century of an ensemble that has been threatened with extinction since 1961. As the last symphony orchestra to arrive on the crowded London scene, it has repeatedly been targeted as the first to go.

"Because Beecham didn't care what he said, the minute he died all the people he hadn't been very nice to tried to get their own back," remembers Harry Legge, a viola player with the RPO from 1950 to the mid-Seventies. "Ever since, the orchestra has been the whipping-boy." Yet it has withstood both the battering from outside, and wounds which some would say were self-inflicted.

As conductor Daniele Gatti prepares for his first season as music director, he would do well to treat the ghost of Beecham with respect. "The RPO was Beecham's creation and has remained so all the time I've known it," says Jack Brymer, the revered English clarinettist for many years at the heart of the woodwind. "Even now, I still hear traces of the Beecham magic in the silkiness of the strings, the individuality of the wind."

The unique RPO tone - more warm than brilliant, flexible rather than rigidly disciplined, a balance of strong personalities rather than a corporate blend - did not have to be worked on in rehearsal. It was a product of mutual affection.

The result is the true sound of people enjoying the noise they are making

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"If you want to hear that affection," says Brymer, "you only have to listen to our recording of Delius's First Cuckoo in Spring. It was the first session after Tommy's return from a long absence. He didn't say much, just, 'Good to see you gentlemen,' and, 'Put the light on, Mr Collingwood [recording producer] and we'll see what my old friend Frederick Delius has to say to us.' The result is the true sound of people enjoying the noise they are making, sharing their love of music, and enjoying their conductor, too."

It is easy to understand why when Beecham died - Brymer refers to it, significantly, as "when he left the orchestra" - many felt the RPO had lost its reason to live. In old age, the great man had done his best to ensure continuity by appointing the players' choice, Rudolf Kempe, as his successor.

ACCORDING to Harry Legge, Kempe achieved the near-impossible. "Following Tommy was like trying to follow Churchill. It was lucky we didn't have a musical Anthony Eden. Kempe didn't have the same personality as Beecham, but he had the same musical qualities and control, and he managed to get the orchestra into a position where it could survive. We had a wonderful rapport with him."

Brymer, who left the RPO for the BBC SO two years into Kempe's reign, has a different view. "It was perfectly obvious he was not going to be the conductor the orchestra needed. He let them down in some ways. I enjoyed working with him, but not the way he treated the orchestra." Such divergence of opinion shows how precious and fragile those past days of affection-based music-making had been.

It was as if Beecham had left something of his spirit with the orchestra

Yet, as recordings from the Sixties prove, artistic standards remained high, and the RPO retained its ripe individuality. Many of the original "Royal Family" of wind soloists stayed on; even when significant changes were made, an RPO tradition continued. It was as if Beecham had left something of his spirit with the orchestra, and it was being passed through the generations.

Brymer had witnessed the beginnings of this alchemy on a long American tour in 1950. "Tommy conducted every concert but three, when he was ill. We didn't employ a different conductor; leader David McCallum stood up and went through the motions while we gave a Beecham performance. We could close our eyes and know what Tommy would want."

With Beecham gone, other conductors gave fine performances with the RPO without ever becoming intimately associated with the orchestra in the public's mind. Lacking the glamour of "Previn's LSO", "Muti's Philharmonia" or "Haitink's LPO", the Royal Philharmonic began to lose out. Previn's appointment as music director in 1985 should have raised prestige, but he relinquished control after a year. The reins were taken over by pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy, an inexperienced conductor but a respected and high-profile musician.

By the time Ashkenazy and the RPO parted company in early '95, artistic standards had stabilised, commercially useful deals had been struck, and the orchestra had a residency in Nottingham. But all was not well: the manner of Ashkenazy's ousting in favour of the young Italian Daniele Gatti, and the subsequent abrupt dismissal of managing director Paul Findlay, were condemned in the press as profoundly insensitive.

Gatti has excited the orchestra: "He wants to create a sound, mould them into a tool he can be creative with"

According to Guy Bebb, violinist and executive director of the orchestra: "If we'd really been so awful, Daniele Gatti, who is a personal friend of the previous managing director, would not have stayed with us." Whatever the inside story, the point is worth making when neither the Philharmonia nor the LPO can attract a desirable music director.

Gatti has excited the orchestra: "He wants to create a sound, mould them into a tool he can be creative with," says Bebb. "Rehearsal time is not just geared to individual concerts, but is part of an overall strategy to instil a new discipline." What will be the consequences? Will Gatti finally erase the last traces of Beecham magic?

If so, he had better have a powerful magic of his own. One could argue that the RPO have been living precariously by playing in memory of Beecham for too long. But I would argue back that, however faded it has sometimes become, the regal singularity of the RPO's sound has been worth preserving while other orchestras lost their identity.

It would be a tragic shame if the RPO were to go the way of the Hallé which, under its present conductor, has lost touch with its roots and begun to sound like an American orchestra doing a bad impression of Karajan's Berlin Philharmonic. If Gatti can create an RPO to last another 50 years, good luck to him. I just hope it has a sound Tommy would have approved of.

Royal Albert Hall: 0171-589 8212. A CD of RPO performances, including a previously unreleased Beecham recording, is available on Tring TRP 500